YOLO and Yooperlites, Sep 2018

Yooperlites!

Yooperlites! These rocks are so cool!!  They glow bright orange in the dark if you shine a black light on them.  That's my shirt and arm at the top of the picture, my hand holding two large Yooperlites and a tiny one.  I joined others from the Michigan Rockhound Friends facebook group on a Yooperlite Nite hunt with the discoverer, Erik Rintamaki.  He told us about the rock and how he found it, sent it for analysis, and got to name it.  He provided us each with 100-LED black light flashlights and took us out onto the beach of Lake Superior at the Mouth of the Two Hearted River where he finds them.  Above are some of the finds that the group found that night.

Below is an aerial view I found on the internet showing the 35-mile long Two Hearted River area.  The brown area is a burned zone from 6 years ago with no live trees except at the campground.  It's waaay out there in the middle of nowhere and you have to drive more than an hour on dirt/gravel/sand roads to get there.  Note the dark plume where the river actually empties into Lake Superior.

I rode up with a fellow rock club friend, Laura, who offered to share her pop-up trailer at the campground.  We got the last available space in the campground (first come, first served, no reservations, no way to contact them, so we were anxious as we didn't really have a Plan B and didn't want to have to drag the trailer back out along those roads).  The salmon were about to start running up the river and it was crowded with hopeful fishermen.  We set up camp and here is the trailer ready to use.  It was quite a nice campsite, actually.

My accommodation inside, quite comfy.  The fridge didn't work, the heater didn't work, the lights didn't work, we had no cups, glasses, bowls or campfire cooking utensils, and the water was too bleachy to even use to wash with. The sink leaked so we just didn't use it. When it rained on our last night here, the camper only leaked a tiny bit in the corner.  Thankfully, a friendly fisherman insisted on loaning us his propane heater and we could get ice from a store about half an hour's drive away to put in our coolers.

 The Two Hearted River campground is a rustic one.  This hand pump was the only source of water.  It was cold and pure and tasted great, but hard to pump into gallon jugs without getting all wet from the uneven flow as you pumped.  We kept a few jugs and buckets filled at the camper so we had drinking and washing water.  And Jason laughed when I took drinking water with me.

 Our campsite, with the 'poop tent' set up on the left.  We had our own porta potty inside so we didn't have to walk the length of the campground to the vault toilets at the other end.  Pretty handy.  It can double as a private shower stall, too, if you want to use solar shower bags.

We don't need no stinkin' showers!  It was unusually warm and calm, so we got into Lake Superior to refresh ourselves.  Not often you can swim or play in this lake without freezing or getting bowled over by waves.  I'd intended to snorkel along the beach in the shallow water to look for agates, but had forgotten my snorkel and mask back at the campsite and was too lazy to walk back and get it.  I still have yet to find an agate!

 The suspension bridge we had to cross from the campsite to the beach.  It wobbled with every step, making you feel like a drunken sailor.  The setting sun signaled it was almost time to find Yooperlites.

 It was narrow, so people could only walk one way at a time.

 A view of the bridge from the beach side.

 Laura and I took my little black light flashlight and went hunting the night before the Yooperlite tour and we found a few on our own.  They look like plain gray rocks in the normal daylight.

Looking from the bridge down to the mouth of the river in early morning.  Ernest Hemmingway wrote a book, Big Two Hearted River about fishing in this river.  The water in the river is like very dark tea from the tannins. The salmon fishermen had no trouble seeing where they wanted to cast their lines.

 Looking up the beach where we hunted for Yooperlites the night before.  You can see my long shadow.

 Looking up the river from the bridge. I found my first Yooperlite on our tour hunt with Erik just over by that dune.

 This arch on the beach was left over from someone's wedding.  It made a good landmark for us as it was just where the bridge crossing was.  When it gets dark out here, it is hard to know where the crossing is. I carried a regular LED flashlight as well to shine to help us find the location of the bridge and the path back to camp.

 Looking down the beach towards the mouth of the river.  The wind and waves had whipped up overnight and the whole surface had changed.

Looking up the beach we were to hunt on when the sun set.  Some of these photos are from others in the group.  Lots of rocks to look through.

Our Yooperlite Nite Tour group waiting on the shore for the sun to set so we could see the rocks light up.

 Karen in her hunting garb.  Bandanas were a signal that we were part of this group, but most folks flew them from their car windows as a sign.  The long sleeves and pants kept the mosquitos and biting flies at bay.  Thankfully, we really didn't have any issues with them for the most part.

 Purple lights on the beach signal Yooperlite hunters at work/play!  The black light flashlights cast the purplish glow.  The light had to hit the rock for it to glow orange for you to find it.

 The beach by day looking back towards the bridge.  Lots of stones here, making it a good hunting ground.

 We walked slowly down the beach, sweeping the light back and forth.  Erik claimed going slowly was a key, but I went at the pace I could sweep my light and found probably more than anyone else.  I'm way down the beach already.  But every footstep moved rocks for someone behind us, uncovering a new batch and everyone found Yooperlites this night.

 Karen waiting on the shore for sunset. My brown backpack there will hold my regular flashlight and become my cache for my Yooperlites I find during the night.

During the day, we looked for pretty rocks and fishermen tried their luck for salmon.  Too warm and/or too early, as few fish were caught.  You don't often see Lake Superior this calm.

 Our group waiting for dark.  I'm the one near the left end leaning out of my chair, picking through the stones for pretty rocks.  Never leave a chance unused.  Later, when it was dark, Erik found a Yooperlite right where my feet were!

It's almost time....  What perfect weather for this outing.

 The moon just after sunset the night we arrived.

Clear, calm skies and water is not the norm for here!  We were very lucky and the timing was awesome for this activity.

Back at Erik's campsite, he tries in vain to get a cell phone signal; no luck.  We're off the grid here.

 Karen, Laura, and Erik at his campsite after the hunt where our group gathered.  Our campsite was directly behind Erik's.  We roasted s'mores (I'd brought Ghiradelli chocolate, so they were gourmet versions!) and hotdogs, and munched on sandwiches and cookies.

 The view from the other side of the goodie table.  Unfortunately, I never got to see everyone else's finds from the night hunt as they were all staying in towns an hour away or at other campgrounds.  This is after 11 PM, so many didn't stick around long.

 Some of our group around the campfire after the successful Yooperlite hunt.

 Vickie in the center is the one I'd gone to Point Iroquois Lighthouse with a couple of months earlier.  She's also a member of our rock club, the Mikenauk Gem and Mineral Club, in Roscommon.

 Erik at the table full of goodies to eat.

 A view of our beach the morning after. You can see the long shadows--it's still very early. The humidity was up and the rocks in the shade were wet.

 Wet stones on the beach look more colorful than when they're dry.

 Wet rocks on the beach in a puddle.  I love looking through the water at rocks.

 And of course, I found some I just coulnd't leave behind.  Unprepared to collect (I'd just gone over the bridge to take a few photos), I had to resort to carrying my newfound treasures in my t-shirt.  I didn't have any pockets.

 The mouth of the river is just visible in this shot, with tiny imperfections that are actually fishermen out early, intent on catching the first salmon of the season.  The mouth of the river changes constantly.  I saw it change in a matter of hours during the few days I was there.  It's amazing what the opposing flows of water can do in such a short time.  Wind-pushed waves coming in from the lake against the outflow of the dark tannin-filled river water created and eliminated little islands of sand and stones in short order. Someone told me the mouth was over a mile further east recently.  With such fast-paced changes, you can understand why we had to watch where we walked at night in the dark.  You could find yourself on the wrong side of an island in the making and get wet.  The dark plume from the river was very evident in daylight as it made its way into the clear lake water.

Looking through Erik's campsite to ours in the background the morning after.

 Laura, Erik, and Karen just before Erik broke camp after our successful Yooperlite Nite Tour the previous night.  Rock on!

Erik shows us some of his finds.  His light is purer black light and allows him to take better photos.  The blue and purple light from our flashlights makes all the Yooperlites look purple and doesn't show the orange glow like our eyes see. 

 Some of my finds, all are Yooperlites.

 This one is a half-Yooperlite, and you can see the distinct line in the rock where the mineral content changes.  Only half of the rock glows orange.

 Another lady in the neighboring campsite spent her time around the campfire making these bird houses out of sticks and stones she found here.  Very clever.  I'd like to live here if I was a bird.

 Some of my non-Yooperlite keepers in a black bucket. We also hunted for Yooperlites on the other side of the river mouth.  We drove to the far end of the campground and walked a path through the trees and along the dunes to get to the beach on the other side of the river mouth.  We did find more Yooperlites there and were very glad to have good flashlights to find our way back to the path.

 We had a campfire one day, but wood was not close and we didn't really have camping pans or utensils, so we mostly cooked inside the camper with propane.  There was a massive, destructive fire here about 6 years ago and all the trees for miles are gone. The Mouth of the Two Hearted River campground is a tiny oasis in a pretty barren landscape these days.  I guess we aren't supposed to gather firewood from the State lands that surround us, either.  We used wood that others had left behind or gave us.

 I'm trying to take photos of some of my Yooperlites, but the pics keep coming out purple.  The black light is UV light, but the blue and purple we see are still part of the visible light spectrum my black light puts out, and my camera picks it up. 

 Other pretty Lake Superior rocks I took home with me.

 Trying to capture the magic of this gemmy Yooperlite.  The orange is muted by the blue and purple of the visible light spectrum from the black light flashlight.  I think I need a yellow filter, but you can't believe how hard it is to find a flat, transparent piece of yellow plastic.

 Another partial Yooperlite, where the line between the minerals is quite evident.  Yooperlites are syenite rocks with inclusions of fluorescent sodalite.  It's the sodalite that glows fluorescent orange under UV light.

 
These exhibit the flower, or snowflake pattern of glow.

 You can't get the full picture of the glow with these, but perhaps you get an idea.

 Another big flower one.

 Use your imagination.....A pure black light won't cast the bluish/purple visible light that messes up the camera.  But they are several hundred dollars and I'm not that much into the Yooperlites that I'll buy one.  The pure black lights also won't let you find your way in the dark; the ones we got have this bit of visible light that at least lets you see enough not to get lost in the dark.

 My Yooperlites from our few days up at the Two Hearted River Mouth.

 Doesn't this remind you of one of the famous Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles?

 An old medicine bottle makes the color look more appropriate, but it also blurs the object a bit because it is round and there are two walls to shoot through.  But these are getting closer.....

 Laura also picked up some stones with holes in them.  They are known as witch's stone, or hag stones on the internet, but she called them 'omer stones'.  These are basalt.  Once she showed hers to me, I started keeping an eye out for them.  Just an oddity, really, but some folks collect them.  This grouping is my papa, mama, baby, and wannabe omer stones.

 More attempts to photograph my Yooperlites.  Trying to hold the flashlight, a piece of yellow plastic and the phone or camera needs three hands and I only have two.

A bit dark, but if you saw this on the beach at night, wouldn't you pick it up?

Getting better, but I'm not a photography nut and am just trying different settings on the phone and camera.  This is close to what you'd see on the beach.

 A shot with me trying to filter out some of the purple light from the black light flashlight.

 The same rock with a piece of yellow plastic in front of the lens.  This is what the rocks look like when you see them on the beach at night!  I've seen this pattern referred to as 'galaxy'.  Imagine walking on a dark beach and seeing this rock.  Magical!

The night of the Yooperlite hunt with Erik, one of the men who had joined the group tour showed up with nasty red blotches, bleeding, oozing sores and huge blisters on his feet, calves, and ankles.  Jim was starting to experience some pain and wondered if anyone knew what he could do for relief.  We looked at his legs and told him he needed to go to an Urgent Care facility. Nobody had ever seen anything like it.  It looked nasty and was getting worse by the hour.  He finally agreed that he needed medical attention and left before the hunt.  Erik gave him a Yooperlite as a consolation; that was nice of him.  

The nearest hospital was in Newberry, about an hour away.  Laura rinsed his wounds with colloidal silver and he took off in his car. Since we were off the grid, we couln't keep up with him, but in text updates he told us they planned to keep him for a week in the hospital.  Doctors were ready to air ambulance him off to Sault Ste. Marie where they had a surgeon available before someone finally recognized the symptoms and could diagnose him!  

He'd been in contact with Poisonous Parsnip!!  He'd been out to a nearby lighthouse and stopped along the road to take a leak.  He walked a few yards into the weeds and must've brushed up against some then.  The sap/juice of the plant is UV/sun activated and induces a chemical burn like a 3rd degree sunburn.  It takes weeks or months to heal and can leave permanent scarring.  Look this nasty weed up and make sure you avoid getting anywhere near it!  It's now known to be an invasive species in northern Michigan, but the internet claims it can be found throughout the country.  Watch out, it's worse than poison ivy.

Laura and I drove to Grand Marais to look for agates on the beach.  We thought we'd have lunch and hunt the beaches until nightfall and look for more Yooperlites.  I'm dressed for the cold wind in my foul weather overalls and Jason's neoprene shirt.  Perfect.  We got tired and bored and couldn't wait for dark, so we headed back towards the camp.  We'd also stopped at Muskallonge Beach to look during the day (and check email and texts as they have a wifi connection), but liked our campsite beach as a better night hunting option.  We stopped at a pull-off along the road near the beach on the way back to try our luck after dark and a fellow Yooperlite hunter recognized the bandana in our window and joined us for a hunt along the empty beaches when it got dark.  

 Laura and I drove to Newberry to visit Jim in the hospital and see how his legs were doing.  He thanked us for pushing him to go and said if he'd waited another hour, he didn't think he'd have made it as he was lightheaded and a bit disoriented when he drove into the Emergency entrance at the hospital.  I gave him a couple of Yooperlites since he missed the fun of finding his own.  On the way back to our camp, we got a flat tire and limped into the campsite.

 Friendly fishermen reinflated the tire using a compressor pump, powered by the Honda generator I'd brought along.  It didn't last more than an hour.  A team of other guys changed the tire (took lots of kicking to get it off; they claim it was 'dirt welded' on) and put the donut spare on.  It was underinflated, but the guys with the compressor had gone fishing and nobody else seemed to have one.  The camp host told us not to worry about checking out on time (he's 93, likes to drink, and was a bit of a character), and directed us to a repair shop in Newberry.  So the next morning, we took the flat tire and drove in gingerly to get it fixed.  No such luck.  It wasn't the tire; it was the wheel that had a hole in it, punched up from the outside.  The mechanics claimed they'd never seen anything like it.  Laura had to buy a whole new wheel and the dealer couldn't get it until the next day.  Her 2015 vehicle was 'too new' to find used wheels in the UP.  So we drove back to the campground and paid to spend an extra night there.  A hat on a dashboard outside the repair shop.

 Rain and strong winds were forecast for the Two Hearted River area.  The DNR guys had visited the campground to warn campers as they knew we usually couldn't get a cell signal. Sometimes it would blip on for a few seconds (a satellite passing overhead??) but it wasn't enough to stay in communication.  We packed as much as we could into the car before dark and put the remainder of our stuff under the camper to try to keep it dry.  We stayed warm and dry with the borrowed heater that night.  The next morning, we closed up the camper, hooked it up to the car, still with the donut on, and pulled it the 40+ miles over the washboard roads back to Newberry to get the new wheel on.  At least the dust was kept down from the night's rain.

 A mural on the wall next to the repair shop in Newberry.  Jim had been let out of the hospital early and was heading downstate to his home.  Laura had missed her 47th year anniversary. The wheel was incredibly expensive, but we got it on and headed home.  We were both ready to go home.

 Rain and fog as we crossed back over the Mackinac Bridge.  Our perfect weather window for the Yooperlite hunt had definitely closed.

 We didn't make it home.  The trailer tire blew out on the interstate and was mangled beyond repair. 
Laura called a wrecker service as she didn't think she could get the spare off (rusty bolts), didn't have a jack for the trailer, and thought her insurance would cover the road repair.  The big wrecker changed the tire in no time, but we determined that both of them were underinflated.  The wrecker followed us off the busy interstate (people zoomed by at 75 mph within inches of us, so I understand that law to move over or slow down when there are flashing lights on the shoulder!) to the nearest gas station where we had to pay to put air in the tires. The trailer tire was a mess.  We're lucky it didn't flip the trailer when it blew. The wrecker man claimed it was dry rot in the trailer tires and he sees it a lot.

 You can see where it blew out.

We finally made it home after our four days of adventure.  The wheel and tire incidents had cost us an extra day of time and a lot of money for Laura, but it was too late now to attend our rock club meeting.  Bummer, as we could've shown off our great rock and Yooperlite hauls! Next month, show and tell.